Colour vision in ants (Formicidae, Hymenoptera)

Abstract

Ants are ecologically one of the most important groups of insects and exhibit impressive capabilities for visual learning and orientation. Studies on numerous ant species demonstrate that ants can learn to discriminate between different colours irrespective of light intensity and modify their behaviour accordingly. However, the findings across species are variable and inconsistent, suggesting that our understanding of colour vision in ants and what roles ecological and phylogenetic factors play is at an early stage. This review provides a brief synopsis of the critical findings of the past century of research by compiling studies that address molecular, physiological and behavioural aspects of ant colour vision. With this, we aim to improve our understanding of colour vision and to gain deeper insights into the mysterious and colourful world of ants. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding colour vision: molecular, physiological, neuronal and behavioural studies in arthropods’.

Research Progress on the Species and Diversity of Ants and Their Three Tropisms

“…Like many other animals, insects use color information during the day and at night to guide their behavior, e.g., for locating their specific habitats, identifying some conspecifics, and orientating themselves according to celestial and terrestrial landmarks [32]. In insects, color vision involves different physiological and neuronal processing stages that mainly require a comparison of the output of at least two types of photoreceptor (PR) cells within the retina [42].…”

High diversity of arthropod colour vision: from genes to ecology

“…A detailed report on the best studied and likely most diverse clade among crustaceans, the stomatopods, is presented by Cronin et al [20]. Among insects, some orders have been heavily studied, for instance Hymenoptera (for ants, see [30]) and Lepidoptera [31], while for others, including the large orders of Diptera (flies) and Coleoptera (beetles), knowledge is still scarce [14]. McCulloch et al [15] give an overview of the present state of knowledge on insect opsins.…”

“…In addition to opsin expression, a number of optical mechanisms that can strongly modify both the spectral sensitivity of photoreceptors in an eye and the dimensionality of colour vision have been described in arthropods (see [14,30,52]).…”

Abdominal Waving in Nordus Blackwelder (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and its Behavioral Mimicry by a Chalcidid Wasp in Costa Rica (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae: Stypiura Kirby)

“…We suggest that the constant abdominal waving in combination with the orange abdominal apex in Nordus beetles must act as a visual warning to diurnal invertebrate predators, reinforced by chemical irritants, and Stypiura gain protection through Batesian mimicry of this behavior. The intended targets for abdominal waving are most likely diurnal ants with relatively high visual acuity such as Ectatomma, which forage in the same microhabitats and are able to discern color and form long-term visual memories (Yilmaz and Spaethe 2022). Other potential invertebrate targets of abdominal waving include jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae), which drive complex behavioral mimicry in other groups of insects (e.g., Greene et al 1987).…”